Trying to renew a European .it or .de domain name with GoDaddy? Is the domain name showing as Pending Expiration weeks before the domain renewal date? Why is GoDaddy holding my domain name hostage?
Why is GoDaddy doing this?
I had a recent experience of GoDaddy making my .it domain renewal really difficult.
Around 11 months ago I registered a European .it domain name with GoDaddy and I reckoned it was time to renew it. Should be easy? Well, in fact, No…
I use different domain registrars for my domain names depending on who is cheapest. At the time GoDaddy was relatively cheap for registering an Italian .it domain name.
Despite being the Italian top level domain (tld) .it domain names are often used for IT, software or technology related websites as well.
The only provisio to registering a .it domain name is that you are a resident of the EU. So it was fairly easy to register.
Jump forward 11 months and I want to renew the domain name.
Except I can’t. In the GoDaddy domain control panel, the status is showing as Pending Expiration.
That’s strange. The domain name has nearly a month before it expires. Pending Expiration is what you would expect if you missed your renewal window.
With the domain name in Pending Expiration it is impossible to renew through the GoDaddy online control panel. And there is no support ticket system.
The only way to renew my .it domain name was to phone GoDaddy support.
After a 15 minute phone call I had arranged for the renewal of the domain name, although for some reason it may take up to 5 days to actually renew.
I’m still not quite sure why GoDaddy can’t just let these European domain names be renewed through their website, the only explanation offered by the telephone support guy was that there was more work involved in renewing a .it domain name.
What a hassle.